


just that constant strangeness

by greenconverses



Category: Crazy Stupid Love (2011)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-01-14
Updated: 2012-01-14
Packaged: 2017-10-29 13:13:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,223
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/320294
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/greenconverses/pseuds/greenconverses
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Jacob Palmer is not someone who does awkward. Missing scene, post-fight at the Weavers.</p>
            </blockquote>





	just that constant strangeness

Jacob Palmer is not someone who does awkward.

He often puts himself in awkward positions — taking married women home from the bar, for instance, or the occasional clingy woman who doesn’t know what a one night stand means — but he is never awkward himself. Jacob Palmer is smooth, confident, and quick-witted; he hasn’t been awkward since he was thirteen and lanky, with an unfortunate case of acne on his chin. He can talk himself out of almost any situation with compliments, half-truths, and an irresistible, mostly sincere smile.

Except maybe this one.

He glances over to the driver’s seat out of the corner of his eye, feeling like a child who’s been put in time out and is looking for confirmation that it’s all right to speak again.

Hannah is all tense lines, her grip white knuckled on the steering wheel and mouth set in the same thin, furious frown that was on her face when they left her parents house.

“I’m getting you an ice pack and you are _not_ going to say a word until I tell you to, Jacob Palmer,” she had said as she yanked the driver’s side door open and held her hands out for the keys. He opened his mouth to protest — specifically the part about her driving his car. It's a stick shift for God’s sake, but then again, if the last hour had been any indication, he didn’t know as much as Hannah Weaver as he thought he did — but her glare was enough to silence him up until now.

He shifts the ice pack against his cheek, hating the deep silence in the car. He wonders if Hannah is just going to let him stew in this foreign awkwardness for the rest of the day, delighting in the shoe being on the other foot for once in their relationship.

Hannah’s confidence comes from a different place than Jacob’s does. The woman who kissed him dramatically at the bar is a completely different person than the one who babbled her way past his defenses and into his heart later that night. Unlike him, she’s not afraid to be awkward and nervous, to be in touch with her deeper emotions. Maybe that’s because she’s did everything by the book before she met him and when being proper and straight-laced didn’t work out, she was okay with jumping head first into the awkward unknown and finding something new to believe in.

After what happened today, Jacob’s just praying he’s still that something.

He wasn’t lying when he told Cal that Hannah was a game changer. He doesn’t know what he’ll do if she takes him home and decides not to come back. Uncertainly is something frightening and new to him. Jacob Palmer does not get this attached. And he most certainly doesn’t fall in love.

Fucking hell, he’s pathetic.

“I thought I told you not to talk,” Hannah says sharply, and Jacob realizes he must’ve muttered that last thought out loud.

“Whoops,” he replies, pulling the ice pack away and tossing it on the dash. His cheek has gone numb and he rubs it, noting the tenderness. Yep, it’s going to bruise.

He glances out the window as the freeway blows past, waiting for Hannah’s cue. The silence is acutely painful now and Jacob’s convinced, despite what she told Cal, she’s plotting how she can dump him as fast and painlessly as possible. Because honestly, does he have anything to offer Hannah besides a good fuck and money? Absolutely not. He, Jacob Palmer, has done nothing with his life besides being a womanizing asshole and does not deserve someone like Han —

“You punched David Lindhagen.”

“What?” Jacob replies, taken aback. “I mean... can I talk now?”

Hannah looks away from the road, and Jacob lets out a breath of relief. She’s no longer furiously angry, just exasperated. Exasperated is good. It means there’s still hope for him yet.

“Yes, you can talk,” she says, glancing at him. “So long as you tell me why you punched David Lindhagen.”

“Because he’s an _asshole_ ,” Jacob says automatically. “Do you know how many times I’ve had to listen to Cal... I mean, your dad... _fuck_ , this is weird.”

Jacob runs a hand through his hair in frustration. He’s never had in trouble with words around anyone but Hannah. Maybe it’s the lawyer-to-be in her that sucks all the words out of him and uses them for herself.

“ _You’re_ telling me,” Hannah says with a laugh. “Apparently my dad and the guy I’m majorly in love with have been, like, secret boyfriends for the last couple of months — ”

“We’re not _boyfriends_ ,” Jacob interrupts, face flushing. His defensiveness almost causes him to miss the first part of what she said.

Almost.

“Wait.” He drags out the vowels, waiting for the rest of her words to come back to him. “‘Majorly in love with?’”

Hannah shrugs casually, although there’s a noticeable blush creeping up from her neck to her cheeks.

“Maybe?” she says, and there’s that infliction in her voice she gets before she gears up into an embarrassed babble session. “Like you’re honestly surprised by this? Did you somehow manage to miss the fact that all the women before me probably fell in love with you for a night?”

He never used to be embarrassed by his past, but he certainly is now. Jacob _hadn’t_ noticed anything of the sort from the women he used to see, even the ones that managed to last longer than one night. He hadn’t been looking for love then, hadn’t wanted to find it, so yes, he was genuinely surprised that someone like sensible _Hannah_ could love him.

“I mean, you’re cute for one,” she continues, ticking off reasons on her fingers as she drives. “You’re smart, you’re witty and funny, you actually _listen_ to me when I talk which is a total novelty by the way... ”

“Back up a second,” Jacob says. “Did you say _cute_? What happened to R-rated sexy?”

“Uh, _I’m_ the R-rated one, not you, remember?”

“I have not been downgraded to _PG-13_ — ”

Hannah’s eyes crinkle at the corners and she laughs, that deep chuckle that reminds him of the first night they spent together, where all they did was laugh and talk, when Jacob knew he was a goner and Hannah had to be the only woman he could have for the rest of his life.

“I love you,” he says quietly, and he’s surprised with the ease those famous three words slide out of his lips. “I really do.”

Hannah’s smile is brilliant and full, and the sight of it makes Jacob’s blood thick in his veins.

“Don’t think this means that you don’t have to tell me this whole twisted, probably totally ridiculous story about how your know my dad,” Hannah says sternly, but her eyes are playful. “Man, Liz is just going to _love_ this story... ”

He nods along, reaching across the middle counsel to slip his hand into Hannah’s.

Jacob understands now why Cal was reduced to the mixed drink sipping, miserable fool he had been when he first met him. Love is a powerful thing and it’s something he’s just beginning to understand. And if love means he’s going to have to be awkward sometimes, he’ll learn how to deal with it.

It’ll be worth it.


End file.
